http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com |MEMPHIS, Tenn.
The race to retain the seat of
the retiring Fred Thompson,
crucial in the struggle for control of
the United States Senate, ought to
make George W. Bush feel pretty
good, at least about himself.

Lamar Alexander, the
Republican running this time with
neither the exclamation point
(Lamar!) nor the plain plaid shirt of
his failed presidential campaigns,
and his Democratic opponent,
Rep. Bob Clement, are locked in a
contest that looks to be a race to
see who gets to be firstest to help
George W. the mostest.

As important as the race is in a
state that leans Republican (Al Gore could not even carry his
home state in 2000) but not by much, so far it's falling a
caliber or two short of the fire and brimstone in Montana,
New Jersey, Missouri or even in nearby Arkansas. Mr. Bush
has campaigned here for Mr. Alexander and he may be back
before Nov. 5, if only for a pit stop en route to somewhere
else.

Mr. Alexander, a former governor, yearns to be a rubber
stamp, promising to support George W. "99 percent of the
time." Mr. Clement, the son of a famous former governor,
was so pleased when the president invited him to ride to
Nashville the other day on Air Force One that he put out a
press release before the big Boeing 747 even lifted off from
Andrews Air Force Base. Mr. Alexander then put out a
press release noting that this was a breach of protocol, or at
least of good manners. And besides, he pointed out, the
president didn't even stroll back to schmooze with his guests,
as he usually does.

Mr. Alexander is the favorite, and though some people
here detect an ever-so-small closing of the gap between the
two men in recent days, he continues to hold a double-digit
lead in the public-opinion polls. The margin has not been
reflected in the sometimes tart exchanges between the
candidates.

When Mr. Clement, in a debate Sunday night, took note
of Mr. Alexander's prosperity since he abandoned politics
after his presidential campaigns, exploiting the contacts he
made in those races, Mr. Alexander cried that he was the
victim of "a smear campaign."

Said Mr. Clement, speaking of himself in the third-person
grand so beloved of pols: "The issue is using political
connections and political contacts to make money for his own
checkbook. If Bob Clement is elected, he will fight to protect
your checkbook."

Shot back Mr. Alexander: "Mr. Clement made a million
dollars being in the private sector only three years. I would
never have been able to make that much." And then he
reached into the barnyard for what a former president of the
University of Tennessee, such as Mr. Alexander, would
certainly call a metaphor.

Squabbling over personal finances, he said, "is like
wrestling a pig in the mud. You both get dirty, and only the
pig likes it."

Retorted Mr. Clement: "I'd rather wrestle a pig than live
high on the hog while thousands of people are losing their
jobs."

George W. might also take pleasure and reassurance in
the way that attempts to exploit corporate scandal as
something to blame on the Republicans has failed to gain
traction. Mr. Clement chides Mr. Alexander, a secretary of
education in the first Bush administration, for drawing a
$60,000 salary as a member of the board of a company that
earlier won renewal of a questionable $102 million contract
to supply Internet services to Tennessee public schools.
Several law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI, are
investigating how the contract was awarded, who got what,
when, and why. Mr. Clement has demanded that Mr.
Alexander return the $60,000, just in case. But he has been
careful not to say he thinks there was anything "illegal or
immoral" about Mr. Alexander's dealings. Just fattening.

Mr. Alexander returns similar fire, having charged in an
earlier debate that Mr. Clement fibbed when he said he had
not served 30 years ago on the board of the bank of the
Butcher brothers, Jack and C.H., infamous in Tennessee
politics, who were convicted of bank fraud. Mr. Clement, he
said, even got a $40,000 loan from a Butcher bank. The
accusation, only popcorn cotton as such scandals go,
nevertheless has the additional utility of reminding old-timers
that Mr. Clement's father, who was governor 50 years ago,
was a sometime ally of the Butcher brothers. The past, as
William Faulkner famously wrote, is not dead in the South
because it is not even past.

But the candidates are talking mostly about the economy
in the here and now and the war clouds gathering over Iraq.
Both men support the president strongly, with the ritual
caveat that he ought to bring in the United Nations if he can
(and only if he wants to).

Mr. Clement, who has served in the House since 1979,
reminds voters at every opportunity that he voted to commit
troops to the war in '91 and to give this President Bush the
authority to go after Saddam again. Mr. Alexander agrees,
and both men further agree that the world is dangerous, the
future is uncertain, and talking is better than fighting. But if
fighting comes they're for that, too. They're scheduled to
debate one more time, next Sunday here in Memphis, but
absent an earthquake this one looks safe for the president's
party.